Book 6 - CONVERSATIONS WITH SARAH

For decades Hank Rolland had relied on Sarah’s loving presence and common sense counsel. Then, far too soon, she was gone. After a long illness, and a last emphatic request, she left the scene, leaving him alone, relying on his own resources. 

Weeks later he was unexpectedly drawn to a startling new possibility. Could it be his Sarah had not deserted him after all. Was it real, the affirming sense of her quiet presence? Soon the ‘Wiley Widows’ would begin to circle, complicating everything, raising so many questions. When answers were to be found nowhere else, where would he find better advice than during a quiet, low key Conversation With Sarah?

    Selected Excerpts from CONVERSATIONS WITH SARAH

Setting his freshly warmed coffee on the TV tray next to his recliner, Hank Rolland settled back and tugged at the chair side lever to raise the footrest to his favored first position, just enough to raise his heels off the floor. He took a few seconds to hear the last of the weather report then used the remote to mute the television.

“Come on, girl,” he said, returning to their conversation. “You have to give me some help here. You know about those things. It feels like I’m in over my head. That damn woman won’t leave me alone. Every time I turn around, she’s there. I swear I haven’t done anything to encourage her. In fact, I’ve been downright rude sometimes. But she won’t go away.”

At that moment, seated there in the back bedroom, which served as his computer/work room, Hank was in a familiar, comfortable space. Across the room, perhaps ten feet from his recliner, the television flickered silently, scrolling the day’s stock market prices across the bottom of the screen. 

His attention, however, was focused to the right of the screen, on his friend, confidante, and most reliable conversational partner. It was Sarah, sitting there on the book case shelf, cleverly disguised as a round tin can, nine or ten inches tall. The colorful canister had originally been created to hold ten pounds of Clabber Girl Baking Powder (The Balanced - Double Acting Brand). It now served a higher, more noble calling as the present, if not final, resting place of Sarah Rolland’s earthly remains.There, tucked neatly inside the baking powder tin was a one gallon zip-locked plastic bag containing her ashes.

~

Within weeks of her untimely passing, nearly nine month’s before, Sarah’s ashes, in their bright red, white, and blue repository, had found a home in the room where Hank spent most of his time. From the beginning, as he struggled to accept the unlikely fact that she was there with him, and occasionally paused to question his own sanity, he had considered her proximity a distinct advantage. Now, facing a whole new set of relational concerns, he was counting on her direction and support more than ever.